Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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ATLANTA -- The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has assessed Fresh Market’s store in Mobile, Ala., $59,400 in penalties for allowing minors to perform hazardous duties in violation of the youth employment provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

The violations were uncovered as part of the Wage and Hour Division’s Gulf Coast Child Labor Grocery Store Initiative to determine if stores are in compliance with the youth employment provisions of the FLSA.

“Younger employees can obtain valuable experience by working, but store owners and managers have to recognize that their younger workers cannot be exposed to hazardous activities,” said Oliver Peebles III, deputy administrator of the Wage and Hour Division’s Southeast Region.

Wage and Hour Division investigators found that 15 minors, ages 16 and 17, loaded a trash compactor and a paper baler at the store. The FLSA prohibits the employment of people under the age of 18 in any nonagricultural occupations that the Labor Department has declared hazardous. These dangerous tasks are identified by 17 hazardous occupation orders, one of which requires that employees be at least 18 years old to operate or assist in operating power-driven paper products machines.

The Labor Department has developed a Web site, www.youthrules.dol.gov, to educate employers, young workers, educators and parents about youth employment, the jobs youth may perform and the hours they may work. An interactive, Web-based “e-laws advisor,” with detailed information about youth employment laws, may be accessed at www.dol.gov/elaws/advisors.html. Select the “FLSA Child Labor Rules Advisor.”

For further information about FLSA requirements, call the Labor Department’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (866-487-9243), visit the Wage and Hour Division Web site at www.wagehour.dol.gov or contact the division’s office in Birmingham at 955 22nd St. N., Suite 656; telephone 205-731-1305.

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